256 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



school at Attleboro he assisted in the 

 farm work, as was the custom with the 

 boys of that period, on his father's es- 

 tate, and this occupation proving con- 

 genial to his tastes and also highly re- 

 munerative he followed the same 

 throughout the active years of his car- 

 eer. 



October 15, 1835, Mr. Richardson mar- 

 ried Mary Carpenter Hunt, who died 

 July 18, 1836, leaving no issue. On 

 March 15, 1838, he was united in mar- 

 riage to Mary Knight, of Lower Make- 

 field, Bucks county, daughter of Joshua 

 and Jane (Bunting) Knight, the former 

 named having been a son of John and 

 Margery (Paxson) Knight, and the lat- 

 ter a daughter of William and Margery 

 (Woolston) Bunting. Three children 

 were the issue of the second marriage, 

 namely: _, 



1. Joseph, born March 14, 1839, at- 

 tended the Friends' school, Bucks Coun- 

 ty Academy at Langhorn, and Foulk's 

 boarding school at Gwynedd. He is now 

 retired from active agricultural pursuits. 

 February 16, 1865, he married Hannah 

 Gillingham Rowland, of Middletown 

 township, daughter of William D. and 

 Margaret G. Rowland, and their chil- 

 dren are as follows: Margaret, born 

 February 3, 1866, attended the public 

 schools of Middletown township and the 

 Friends' school at Langhorne, and 

 January 23, 1890, became the wife of 

 Newton May Comly, of Philadelphia, 

 and their children are: Rowland Rich- 

 ardson, born December 23, 1890; Bessie 

 May, born February 11, 1892; Edith 

 Bosler, born July 17, 1894; John Byron, 

 born June 17, 1896; Mary Richardson, 

 born July 14, 1897; and Helen Maud, 

 born February 18, 1899. These children 

 attended the public schools of Bustle- 

 ton, and the eldest, Rowland Richard- 

 son Comly, is completing his studies at 

 the Manual Training School in Phila- 

 delphia. Mary Rowland, born July 13, 

 1867, attended the public schools of Mid- 

 dletown township and the Friends* 

 school at Langhorne. Samuel, born 

 February 25, 1869, also acquired his edu- 

 cation in the same institutions. Joshua, 

 born November 12, 1872, attended the 

 same institutions of learning as his 

 brothers and sisters, and the knowledge 

 thus obtained was supplemented by at- 

 tendance at Pierce's Business College, 

 Philadelphia, from which he was gradu- 

 ated. 



2. Edward, born April 21, 1841, attend- 

 ed the Friends' school and the Bucks 

 County Academy at Langhorne, and he 

 is now one of the representative agri- 

 culturists of Bucks county, his prosper- 

 ity being the direct result of capability 

 and efficiency. 



3. Mary, born March 7, 1844, acquired 

 her educational advantages at the 

 Friends' school and Bucks County Acad- 

 emy, and is widely known and highly 



esteemed throughout the section in 

 which she resides for her many estima- 

 ble traits of character. 



SIPRON C. KEITH, the genial pro- 

 prietor of the popular hostelry known 

 as the White Hall Hotel in Newtown, 

 was born in Kings county, province of 

 New Brunswick, Domonion of Canada, 

 where his paternal ancestors had resided 

 for several generations, on October I, 

 1854. He is a son of Noah and Cathar- 

 ine (Alward) Keith, the ancestors of 

 the latter having resided in the state 

 of New York for several generations. 

 He was educated at the parish schools 

 of his native county, and early in life 

 learned the trade of a plasterer, which 

 he followed in his native county until 

 1883, when he removed to Minneapolis, 

 Minnesota, where he remained for three 

 years. After a year spent in Chicago 

 he removed to Philadelphia in the 

 spring of 1886 and was employed there until 

 the spring of 1891, when he came to New- 

 town and purchased the White Hall Ho- 

 tel, which he has since successfully con- 

 ducted, making it one of the popular 

 hostelries of lower Bucks. Mr. Keith 

 married in Philadelphia, July 18, 1889, 

 Kate E. Salter, daughter of Charles 

 Burleigh and Anna E. (Sperry) Salter, 

 of that city. Their only child is Ruth 

 Marion, born at Newtown, May 10, 

 1892. 



The White Hall Hotel, while not one 

 of the old colonial inns, is nevertheless 

 of historic interest. At the time of the 

 revolutionary war and for many years after 

 it was kept as a store, the proprietor at 

 that time being a man by the name of 

 Campbell. During a great part of the 

 war it was occupied by a government 

 quartermaster as a store house for sup- 

 plies for the American army, and was 

 raided by the Doan outlaws, who car- 

 ried off a lot of government stores. It 

 was later occupied as a store by a man 

 by the name of Evans, who Josiah B. 

 Smith, the historian of the town, re- 

 ferred to as "one of the noisy store- 

 keepers." In 1796 it was purchased by 

 Isaac Hicks. Esq., and was occupied by 

 him as a residence and justice's office 

 for the next forty years. The "Old 

 Squire," as he was known, was a char- 

 acter in his day, and did an immense 

 amount of public business, and could 

 the old timbers of the White Hall be giv- 

 en a tongue they could probably recite 

 for our edification many amusing legal 

 tilts held within its walls. After the 

 death of the "Squire" it was purchased 

 by his grandson, Dr. Edward H. Ken- 

 nedy, who soon after built a new h'ouse, 

 and the old White Hall was occupied 

 as a school, the title being vested in 

 about a dozen of the prominent citi- 

 zens of the town at that time. It was 



